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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


/  i 


Group  of  the  Siberian  Native  Tribe  of  Samoyedes 


THE  LAST  STAND 

OF  THE  OLD 

SIBERIA 

By  R.  A.  F.  PENROSE,  Jr. 


Wm.  F.  FELL  CO.,  PUBLISHERS 
PHILADELPHIA 


Copyright,  IQ22,  by 
R.  A.  F.  Penrose,  Jr. 

PHILADELPHIA 


Printed  in  the 

UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 

BY  WM.   F.  FELL  CO. 

PHILADELPHIA 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

List  of  Illustrations 5 

Introduction 9 

CHAPTER  I 

Historical  Sketch  of  the  Conquest  of  Siberia  by  the 
Russians 13 

CHAPTER  II 
Physical  Features  of  Siberia 23 

CHAPTER  III 
The  Great  Siberian  Railway 31 

CHAPTER  IV 
Moscow  to  Irkutsk 43 

CHAPTER  V 
Irkutsk  and  Lake  Baikal 57 

CHAPTER  VI 

Lake  Baikal  to  the  Head  of  the  Amur  River  ...     65 

CHAPTER  VII 
From  the  Head  of  the  Amur  to  Blagoveschensk     .       .     75 

CHAPTER  VIII 
From  Blagoveschensk  to  Vladivostok        ....     85 

CHAPTER  IX 

Russian  Civilization  in  Siberia 95 


fOi.u 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 

Group  of  the  Siberian  Native  Tribe  of  Samoyedes 

Frontispiece 

A  Siberian  Village 16 

View  on  Amur  River 26 

Railway  Station  on  Great  Siberian  Railroad  ...  32 
Monument  Commemorating  the  Starting  of  the  Great 

Siberian  Railroad 36 

Cossack  Village,  Siberia 46 

View  Near  Stretensk,  Siberia 68 

View  on  the  Shilka  River 70 

River  Boat  on  the  Amur  River 76 

Blagoveschensk  from  the  Amur  River  ....  78 
Manchurian  Camp  (Chinese)  on  the  Manchurian  Side  of 

the  Amur  River 80 

Habarovsk  on  the  Amur  River 86 

Vladivostok  from  a  Hill  on  Outskirts  of  the  Town  .  88 
Bay  of  the  Golden  Horn,  Vladivostok,  Showing  Pacific 

Squadron  of  Russia 90 

Market  Place,  Vladivostok 96 

View  in  Vladivostok  Harbor 102 

Emigrant  Raft  Passing  down  the  Amur  River  .       .       .  no 


INTRODUCTION 


THIS  brief  narrative  of  "The  Last  Stand 
of  the  Old  Siberia"  is  based  on  observa- 
tions made  during  a  geological  and  geograph- 
ical reconnaissance  by  the  author  through 
Siberia  in  1901,  just  after  the  Boxer  war  in 
China  and  adjoining  parts  of  Siberia.  The 
reason  that  the  narrative  was  not  published 
many  years  ago  is  that  the  region  was  still  the 
old-time  Siberia,  for  the  Great  Siberian  Rail- 
way was  only  partly  completed  and  had  not 
yet  materially  changed  the  people  or  their 
conditions.  This  old-time  Siberia  had  been 
much  described,  much  discussed,  and  more 
often  than  not,  much  and  unjustly  abused; 
enough  had  been  said  about  it  for  that  time. 
Soon,  however,  Siberia  began  to  change  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  new  life  brought  by  the 
railway.  It  began  to  shuffle  off  its  mediaeval 
aspects  and  to  assume  more  modern  meth- 
ods and  appearances.  Whether  or  not  this 
was  for  the  better  is  a  matter  for  discussion, 

[9] 


but  it  always  seems  sad  to  see  nature  tram- 
meled by  the  blighting  aggressiveness  of  man. 
The  following  narrative  relates  to  the  last 
stand  of  the  grand  old  Siberia,  just  before  it 
was  engulfed  in  the  upstarting  new  Siberia ; 
and  this  history  may  be  of  interest  to  some  as 
describing  the  conditions  in  the  world's  great- 
est and  most  glorious  wilderness  as  it  met  the 
fanatical  onrush  of  selfish  and  relentless  hu- 
manity advancing  under  the  name  of  modern 
civilization. 


[10] 


CHAPTER  I 

HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  CON- 
QUEST OF  SIBERIA  by  the  RUSSIANS 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  CON- 
QUEST OF  SIBERIA  by  the  RUSSIANS 

WHEN,  in  1580  to  1582,  the  Cossack 
adventurer,  Yermak,  led  a  party  of 
his  countrymen,  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don, 
across  the  Ural  Mountains  and  defeated  the 
Tartars,  he  little  thought  that  he  was  taking 
the  first  step  toward  the  later  conquest  by 
the  Russians  of  the  whole  of  northern  Asia. 
Much  less,  probably,  did  he  realize  when  he 
turned  over  the  conquered  regions  to  the  Rus- 
sian Tzar,  Ivan  the  Terrible,  that  future  gen- 
erations of  Russians  would  immortalize  him 
in  their  history  and  song  as  one  of  their  great- 
est heroes,  and  that  his  bronze  statue  would 
to-day  occupy  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
positions  in  the  Alexander  Museum  at  St. 
Petersburg  (year  1901). 

The  Russian  Empire  in  the  time  of  Yermak 
was  struggling  for  existence,  and  had  only  a 
few  generations  before  emerged  from  two 

[13] 


centuries  of  vassalage  to  the  Mongols  and 
Tartars  of  the  Golden  Horde,  the  descendants 
of  the  followers  of  Jenghiz  Khan.    They  were 
an  isolated  inland  people,  having  as  yet  ac- 
quired no  outlet  to  the  sea,  "an  eye  through 
which  to  look  at  Europe,"  such  as  Peter  the 
Great  gave  them  over  a  hundred  years  later. 
They  were  harassed  on  different  sides  by 
Swedes,  Poles,  Mongols,  and  Turks,  and  even 
amongthemselveslocaldissensionsmade  their 
government  unstable.  About  15  80  some  of  the 
Cossacks  of  the  Don,  discontented  with  the 
political  conditions  in  their  own  country,  fol- 
lowed Yermak  in  an  expedition  across  the 
Urals  into  what  is  now  West  Siberia.  Little 
seems  to  have  been  known  of  Yermak  up  to 
this  time.  It  is  said  by  some  that  he  was  an 
outcast  from  justice,  who  had  been  condemned 
to  death  for  robbery;  but  this  is  contradicted 
by  others,  who  say  that  not  he,  but  some  of 
his  followers,  were  outcasts.    However  this 
may  have  been,  his  subsequent  bravery  and 
services  have  expiated,  in  the  eyes  of  his 

[Hi 


countrymen,  any  crimes  of  which  he  or  his 
men  may  have  been  guilty. 

The  great  Asiatic  empire  established  by 
Jenghiz  Khan  began  to  go  to  pieces  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  various  more  or  less  in- 
dependent governments  were  established  on 
the  site  of  the  ancient  realm.  Dissensions 
among  these  people  caused  some  of  them  to 
spread  northward,  and  in  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  before  Yermak's  ex- 
pedition, the  Tartars  had  occupied  much  of 
the  territory  east  of  the  Ural  Mountains. 
They  had  found  it  easy  to  overcome  the  scat- 
tered inhabitants  who  had  lived  there  previ- 
ously, but  they  found  more  difficulty  with  the 
Russians  with  whom  they  came  in  contact  in 
the  Urals,  so  that  in  1555  the  Tartar  Prince 
Ediger  agreed  to  pay  a  yearly  tribute  of 
1,000  sable  skins  to  the  Tzar,  though  other- 
wise still  preserving  a  nominal  independence. 
His  successor,  however,  the  Khan  Kutchum, 
rebelled  against  this  tribute  shortly  before 
Yermak's  arrival,  and  the  Stroganoffs,  a 
[IS] 


powerful  family  in  the  Ural  Mountains,  en- 
couraged Yermak  to  make  his  invasion. 

When  Yermak  crossed  the  Urals  he  found 
several  well-established  Tartar  communities, 
and  he  first  carried  on  operations  successfully 
on  the  east  slope  of  the  mountains.  He  moved 
then  eastward  and  easily  captured  Isker,  the 
stronghold  of  Khan  Kutchum,  in  the  valley 
of  the  River  Tobol,  near  where  the  town  of 
Tobolsk  now  stands.  He  sent  messengers  to 
the  Tzar  describing  his  victories,  and  an- 
nouncing that  he  held  the  conquered  regions 
subject  to  his  commands.  The  Tzar,  Ivan  IV, 
surnamed  the  Terrible,  greatly  pleased  with 
the  services  of  Yermak,  raised  him  in  royal 
favor,  and  sent  him  a  hundred  rubles,  a  sil- 
ver cup  and  two  cuirasses,  as  well  as  a  fur 
robe  which  he  had  worn  himself — a  sign  of 
special  favor.  The  Tartar  legend  relates  that 
a  small  black  animal  like  a  hound  emerged 
from  the  Tobol  River,  while  a  large  white 
shaggy  wolf  emerged  from  the  Irtish.  They 
met  on  a  sandy  island  near  the  confluences 
[16] 


< 


of  the  two  streams  and  fought,  the  smaller 
animal  finally  killing  the  larger  one ;  then  both 
disappeared  in  the  Irtish.  The  native  sooth- 
sayers interpreted  this  as  meaning  the  over- 
throw of  the  Tartars  by  the  Russians. 

Yermak  continued  his  work  of  invasion, 
but  in  1584  was  defeated  by  the  Tartars,  and 
was  drowned  in  the  River  Irtish.  After  his 
death,  however,  the  Russians  promptly  fol- 
lowed up  the  conquests  that  he  had  begun, 
and  rapidly  occupied  the  vast  regions  to  the 
east.  In  1587  the  now  flourishing  city  of  To- 
bolsk was  founded  near  the  site  of  the  old 
Tartar  stronghold  of  Khan  Kutchum.  In 
1604  the  Russian  advance  had  progressed  so 
far  to  the  east  that  the  town  of  Tomsk,  al- 
most 1,000  miles  from  the  Urals,  now  one 
of  the  most  flourishing  commercial  centers 
of  northern  Asia,  was  founded;  and  in  1622 
the  town  of  Yakutsk,  over  twice  that  dis- 
tance, was  founded;  while  in  1647  the  Cos- 
sack Dezhneff  crossed  Bering  Straits,  over 
4,000  miles  east  of  the  Urals.    In  1643  the 

[17] 


explorer  Poyarkoff  discovered  the  Amur  re- 
gion in  southeastern  Siberia;  and  in  1649-52 
the  celebrated  Khabaroff  entered  this  same 
vast  region  and  defeated  the  natives  and  the 
Chinese  armies  that  defended  it.  It  was, 
however,  subsequently  returned  to  the  Chi- 
nese by  the  treaty  of  Nerchinsk  in  1689,  and 
was  not  again  recovered  by  the  Russians 
until  1858,  when,  by  the  skill  and  diplomacy 
of  Count  Muravioff,  it  was  ceded  to  them 
by  the  treaty  of  Aigun  without  any  fighting. 
Shortly  after  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  town  of  Irkutsk,  west  of  Lake 
Baikal,  and  the  town  of  Nerchinsk,  east  of 
Lake  Baikal,  were  founded. 

Thus  within  less  than  a  hundred  years 
after  the  campaigns  of  Yermak  the  Russians 
had  carried  their  explorations  and  conquests 
across  Asia  to  the  farthest  points  on  the  Pa- 
cific Coast ;  and  all  the  northern  part  of  the 
continent,  from  the  Urals  to  the  Pacific,  and 
from  the  Turko-Mongolian  possessions  and 
the  Chinese  frontier  on  the  south,  to  the 
[18] 


Arctic  Ocean  on  the  north,  was  under  Rus- 
sian control.  This  immense  area  forms  the 
main  part  of  what  is  now  known  as  Siberia, 
which,  however,  has  been  considerably  en- 
larged along  its  southern  and  southeastern 
borders  since  the  days  of  the  early  explorers 
of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries. 
In  1697  the  peninsula  of  Kamchatka  was 
formally  annexed  to  Russia,  and  in  1724  the 
explorer  Bering  was  sent  to  investigate  it.  In 
1732  he  was  sent  again  to  explore  the  same 
region,  together  with  the  Okhotsk  country 
and  other  places  on  the  northeast  coast  of 
Asia  and  the  adjoining  parts  of  America,  and 
to  take  possession  of  such  regions  as  were 
not  occupied  by  other  powers.  It  was  dur- 
ing this  expedition  (1732-1741)  that  Alaska 
was  explored  and  occupied  by  the  Russians, 
who  afterward  sold  it  to  the  United  States 
in  1867.  The  Russian  explorations  of  this 
time  extended  as  far  south  along  the  Ameri- 
can coast  as  California. 


19] 


CHAPTER   II 

PHYSICAL  FEATURES  OF  SIBERIA 


PHYSICAL  FEATURES  OF  SIBERIA 

THE  total  area  of  all  Asiatic  Russia  is 
over  6,500,000  square  miles,  of  which 
Siberia  represents  over  5,000,000  square  miles 
and  covers  over  thirty  degrees  of  latitude. 
The  great  size  of  this  region  can  be  appreci- 
ated when  compared  with  that  of  the  United 
States,  which,  including  Alaska  but  not  other 
outlying  possessions,  covers  an  area  of  a  little 
over  3,600,000  square  miles. 

In  a  country  covering  so  wide  a  range  of 
latitude  as  Siberia,  equal  to  that  of  from  our 
Great  Lakes  to  southern  Mexico,  a  great  va- 
riety of  climates  and  products  is  necessarily 
found.  In  some  of  the  southern  parts  the 
climate  is  not  extreme,  and  in  the  province 
of  Ussuri,on  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  vegetation 
shows  a  strong  approach  to  southern  species, 
while  in  the  Chinese  province  of  Manchuria, 
to  the  south,  cotton  is  cultivated.  The  winter 
temperature,  however,  is  colder  even  in  the 

[23] 


southern  provinces  than  in  corresponding 
latitudes  of  America  and  Europe,  as  the  high 
mountains  on  the  Chinese  border  cut  off  most 
of  the  influence  of  warm  winds  from  the  south. 
Toward  the  north  the  climate,  of  course,  be- 
comes still  colder,  and  at  Verkhoyansk,  in 
the  Territory  of  Yakutsk,  we  find  the  coldest 
known  place  in  Asia,  the  thermometer  regis- 
tering sometimes  lower  than  900  below  zero 
Fahrenheit,  and  the  average  winter  tempera- 
ture being  about  530  below  zero.  Even  in 
this  region,  however,  the  summers,  though 
short,  are  very  hot,  the  temperature  often 
rising  to  over  ioo°  Fahrenheit. 

In  many  parts  of  Siberia  the  ground  is 
frozen  during  the  whole  year,  thawing  only 
for  a  short  distance  from  the  surface  in  the 
summer;  but  crops  of  grain  and  vegetables 
are  often  made  to  grow  in  this  thin  layer  of 
soil  underlaid  by  a  perpetually  frozen  sub- 
soil. Though  the  summers  are  short,  the  long 
days,  while  they  last,  give  the  grain  every  op- 
portunity to  mature  before  autumn  sets  in. 

[24] 


In  its  western  part  Siberia  consists  of  plains 
or  steppes  not  unlike  the  prairies  of  Kansas 
and  Nebraska,  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of 
grass  and  many  fresh  and  saline  lakes  and 
marshes.  This  is  pre-eminently  the  agricul- 
tural region  of  the  country,  though  farming 
is  also  carried  on  in  other  sections.  The  south- 
ern border  of  Siberia  is  marked  by  rugged 
mountain  ranges  separating  it  from  Mon- 
golia and  Manchuria,  and  representing  the 
northern  extension  of  the  great  central  Asi- 
atic plateau,  as  it  breaks  off  in  its  northern 
escarpments.  Prominent  among  them  are  the 
Altai,  Sayan,  and  other  ranges  rising  from 
8,000  to  11,000  feet  above  sea-level.  East  of 
the  valley  of  the  upper  Obi  these  mountains 
widen  out  in  more  or  less  parallel  ranges, 
covering  most  of  the  northeastern  part  of 
Siberia. 

The  great  forest  belt  of  Siberia  extends 
north  of  the  steppes  from  the  Ural  Moun- 
tains to  the  Pacific  Coast,  a  distance  of  over 
4,000  miles;  and  in  eastern  Siberia  it  also 

[25] 


reaches  southward,  covering  a  large  part  of 
the  mountain  region  of  that  section.  These 
forests  are  known  as  the  "Taiga,"  and  are 
the  favorite  haunts  of  the  fur  hunters.  To  the 
north  of  the  forest  belt  is  a  low,  marshy  coun- 
try, covered  with  moss  and  lichens,  and  areas 
of  stunted  trees,  known  as  the  "tundra," 
along  the  Arctic  Coast. 

Before  the  construction  of  the  Great  Si- 
berian Railway  traveling  in  Siberia  was  done 
on  rivers,  postroads,  caravan  routes,  and 
trails;  and  even  yet,  in  regions  not  traversed 
by  the  railway,  these  means  of  communica- 
tion are  still  actively  maintained.  The  great 
river  systems,  however,  with  which  the  coun- 
try is  peculiarly  favored,  have  always  been 
of  especial  importance  as  channels  of  traffic. 
Numerous  rivers  rise  in  the  mountains  on 
the  southern  border  of  Siberia  and  flow 
north,  finally  combining  in  a  few  large  streams 
which  continue  thence  to  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
This  is  true  of  all  the  region  from  the  Urals 
on  the  west  to  the  Yablonoi  and  Stanovoi 

[26] 


Mountains  near  the  Pacific  Coast,  beyond 
which  the  rivers,  notably  the  Amur,  flow  into 
the  Pacific.  The  principal  rivers  in  this  inte- 
rior basin  are  the  Obi,  Yenisei,  and  Lena,  with 
their  many  large  tributaries,  while  numerous 
other  similar  but  smaller  river  systems  drain 
independently  into  the  Arctic. 

Most  of  these  streams  are  navigable  for  long 
distances  above  their  outlets  in  the  north — 
the  larger  ones  for  over  2,000  miles  and  the 
Lena  for  about  3,000  miles;  while  their  more 
important  tributaries  afford  useful  means  of 
lateral  communication  from  the  main  north 
and  south  rivers.  The  waters  of  the  River 
Ket,  a  tributary  of  the  Obi,  at  one  point 
come  so  close  to  the  waters  of  the  Kas,  a  trib- 
utary of  the  Yenisei,  that  a  canal  has  been 
cut  through  the  low  divide  that  separates 
them.  In  this  way  there  is  continuous  navi- 
gation in  an  east  and  west  direction  for  al- 
most as  great  distances  as  in  a  north  and 
south  direction;  and  it  is  not  only  possible  to 
go  from  the  Chinese  frontier  on  the  south  to 

[27] 


the  Arctic  Ocean  on  the  north  on  these  rivers, 
but  also  from  the  Ural  Mountains  on  the 
west  to  the  Altai  Mountains  and  the  moun- 
tains of  East  Siberia  on  the  south  and  east. 
This  ready  means  of  communication  between 
far  distant  parts  of  the  country  is  compara- 
ble with  that  over  an  area  equal  to  from  New 
York  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  from  the 
Canadian  border  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
was  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  Russians  in 
earlier  days  were  able  so  readily  to  overrun 
all  Siberia.  Even  in  the  present  day  the 
water  systems  are  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  the  traffic  of  the  interior  towns. 


[  28 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  GREAT  SIBERIAN  RAILWAY 


THE  GREAT  SIBERIAN  RAILWAY 

MANY  Russians  once  supposed  that  the 
construction  of  the  Great  Siberian 
Railway  would  ruin  the  traffic  of  the  river 
systems;  but  it  was  found,  on  the  contrary, 
that  with  the  coming  of  the  railway  the  river 
traffic  was  actually  very  greatly  increased. 
This  was  due  partly  to  the  great  stimulus 
given  to  business  generally  throughout  Si- 
beria, and  also  to  the  fact  that  these  rivers, 
excepting  the  Amur,  are  dangerous  of  access 
by  the  cold  sea  route  of  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  until  the  railway  came,  had  no  ready  out- 
let for  their  traffic.  Ocean  steamers  can  read- 
ily enter  the  mouth  of  the  Amur,  but  very 
few  enter  the  great  rivers  which  empty  into 
the  Arctic,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  and 
danger  of  navigating  the  Arctic  Ocean  north 
of  the  continent  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Occa- 
sionally vessels  from  Russian  ports  and  some 
from  English  and  other  ports  in  Europe  make 

[31] 


the  trip;  but  the  service  is  not  regular  and 
many  of  them  are  compelled  to  turn  back, 
while  not  a  few  are  lost.  Hence  the  railway 
has  been  of  peculiar  benefit  to  the  traffic  of 
these  rivers  by  supplying  a  connection  with 
the  outside  world  which  could  not  be  gotten 
satisfactorily  by  sea. 

Though  the  rivers  and  military  postroads 
offered  ready  means  of  local  travel  before  the 
railway  was  built,  yet  the  distances  in  Siberia 
are  so  great  that  these  methods,  even  under 
the  most  favorable  circumstances,  were  slow 
and  tedious;  and,  moreover,  during  a  large 
part  of  the  year  the  rivers  are  frozen  and 
sleighs  had  to  be  used.  The  journey  to  dif- 
ferent places  took  many  months,  and  some- 
times years,  and  was  accompanied  by  great 
hardships  and  dangers,  not  only  from  the  in- 
tense cold  of  the  winter,  but  also  from  the 
intense  heat  of  the  short  summer,  and  from 
hostile  natives,  brigands,  wild  beasts,  and 
famine.  In  early  days  the  journey  from  Mos- 
cow to  Irkutsk  took  about  a  year,  while  to 
[32] 


Kamchatka  it  took  six  months  more.  Later 
on,  however,  the  improvements  on  the  mili- 
tary postroads  and  in  the  service  on  them 
made  travel  much  more  rapid,  and  a  dis- 
tance of  200  miles  a  day  was  not  an  unusual 
rate.  Nevertheless,  it  became  yearly  more 
evident  that  more  rapid  communication  was 
necessary  for  the  proper  development  and 
protection  of  this  vast  region;  and  as  far 
back  as  about  i860  the  project  of  railways  in 
Siberia  was  much  discussed.  Many  schemes  to 
connect  different  river  systems  by  short  lines 
of  railway,  thus  facilitating  transcontinental 
traffic,  were  considered ;  but  it  was  finally  de- 
cided to  buildacontinuous  line  from  European 
Russia  across  Siberia  to  the  Pacific.  The  dis- 
cussion over  the  route  of  this  line  lasted  for 
over  twenty-five  years,  until  finally,  in  189 1, 
the  Tzar  Alexander  III  chose  the  present  one, 
and  in  his  announcement  of  his  decision  to  his 
son,  the  Tzarevitch,  the  future  Tzar  Nicholas 
II,  who  was  then  returning  to  Vladivostok  af- 
ter a  journey  to  the  far  east,  wrote  as  follows : 

[33] 


"Your  Imperial  Highness: 

"Having  given  the  order  to  build  a  contin- 
uous line  of  railway  across  Siberia,  which  is 
to  unite  the  rich  Siberian  provinces  with  the 
railway  system  of  the  interior,  I  entrust  to 
you  to  declare  My  will  upon  your  entering 
the  Russian  dominions  after  your  inspection 
of  the  foreign  countries  of  the  east.  At  the 
same  time,  I  desire  you  to  lay  the  first  stone 
at  Vladivostok  for  the  construction  of  the 
Ussuri  line,  forming  part  of  the  Siberian  rail- 
way, which  is  to  be  carried  out  at  the  cost  of 
the  State  and  under  direction  of  the  Govern- 
ment. Your  participation  in  the  achievement 
of  this  work  will  be  a  testimony  to  My  ar- 
dent desire  to  facilitate  the  communications 
between  Siberia  and  the  other  countries  of 
the  Empire,  and  to  manifest  My  extreme 
anxiety  to  secure  the  peaceful  prosperity  of 
this  country. 

"I  remain  your  sincerely  loving 

"Alexander." 

An  elaborate  monument  at  Vladivostok 
commemorates  the  arrival  of  the  Tzarevitch 
at  that  place  in  189 1,  and  his  inauguration  of 

[34] 


the  Great  Siberian  Railway.  The  road  was  to 
be  started  from  both  ends  and  to  be  pushed 
as  rapidly  as  possible.  In  the  meantime  the 
railway  system  of  European  Russia  had  al- 
ready been  continued  east  from  Moscow  to 
the  Urals,  and  in  1892  the  extension  to  Tchel- 
yabinsk  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Urals  was 
opened.  This  town  was  considered  the  start- 
ing point  of  the  Great  Siberian  Railway,  and 
from  here  the  line  was  built  eastward,  passing 
through  the  Government  of  Orenburg,  along 
the  southern  border  of  the  Government  of 
Tobolsk  and  the  northern  border  of  the  Kir- 
giz  Steppe ;  thence  through  the  Governments 
of  Tomsk,  Yenisei,  and  Irkutsk  to  Lake  Bai- 
kal, reaching  the  town  of  Irkutsk  in  1898.  The 
passengers  and  freight  are  at  present  (year 
1901)*  transferred  across  the  lake  by  boat, 


*  The  reader  is  reminded  that  this  manuscript  was 
written  in  1901.  Since  then  the  railroad  has  been 
built  around  the  south  end  of  Lake  Baikal,  and  many 
other  changes  have  occurred  in  transportation  and 
other  matters  in  Siberia.    (The  author.) 

[35] 


though  the  railway  is  being  constructed 
around  its  south  end.  The  road  begins  again 
on  the  other  side  of  the  lake,  and  has  been 
completed  eastward  through  Transbaikalia 
to  Stretensk,  on  the  Shilka  River,  to  which 
point  it  was  opened  for  travel  in  1901.  From 
here  it  was  originally  the  intention  to  build 
down  the  Shilka  to  the  Amur  River,  and 
thence  down  the  Amur  to  Khabarovsk.  It  is 
doubtful,  however,  if  it  will  be  extended  fur- 
ther in  this  direction  for  some  time  to  come, 
as  there  is  river  communication  between 
Stretensk  and  Khabarovsk,  and  the  latter 
place  has  already  been  connected  with  Vladi- 
vostok by  the  Ussuri  division  of  the  railway, 
which  was  completed  in  1897.  Moreover,  in 
the  meantime,  the  East-Chinese  Railway, 
built  under  Russian  auspices  through  Man- 
churia, has  been  completed.  This  line  con- 
nects the  line  in  Transbaikalia  with  the  Us- 
suri Railway,  thus  establishing  a  through 
route  from  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  to 
the  Pacific  Coast  port  of  Vladivostok.  A 
[36] 


..... 

— v. i, 


Monumi  nt  Commemorating  the  Starting  of  the  Great 
Siberian  Railroad 


branch  line  also  connects  the  East-Chinese 
Railway  with  Port  Arthur  and  the  splendid 
new  Russian  seaport  of  Dalny. 

The  distance  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Vladi- 
vostok via  the  Great  Siberian  Railway  and 
the  Shilka  and  Amur  Rivers  is  approximately 
6,500  miles,  though  by  the  East-Chinese  Rail- 
way the  distance  is  several  hundred  miles 
shorter.  On  the  lines  in  Siberia  the  rails  are 
about  eighteen  pounds  to  the  foot,  which  on 
our  basis  would  be  called  fifty-four-pound 
rails;  that  is,  fifty-four  pounds  to  the  yard. 
These  are  being  replaced  (year  1901)  by  heav- 
ier rails  in  many  places.  The  gauge  of  the 
railway  is  five  feet,  similar  to  the  standard 
gauge  throughout  the  Russian  Empire.  The 
highest  point  reached  by  the  railway  is  in  the 
Yablonoi  Mountains  in  Transbaikalia,  which 
it  crosses  in  a  pass  not  quite  3,500  feet  above 
the  sea.  This  is  low  compared  with  the  passes 
ranging  from  7,000  to  12,000  feet,  through 
which  some  of  the  American  railways  tra- 
verse the  Rocky  Mountains.    Many  bridges 

[37] 


are  required  to  cross  the  numerous  rivers  of 
Siberia,  and  some  of  them  are  fine  substantial 
structures  of  iron  and  steel.  The  station  build- 
ings are  substantially  built  of  stone  or  wood, 
and  many  of  them  contain  excellent  dining- 
rooms,  lunch  counters,  and  other  conveni- 
ences, where  the  traveller  can  find  as  good 
meals  as  at  any  American  eating  stations, 
with  wine  and  other  luxuries. 

A  daily  train*  starts  from  Moscow  for  the 
Great  Siberian  journey,  but  twice  a  week 
this  train  is  faster  than  on  the  other  days, 
and  is  known  as  the  "train  de  luxe."  Its 
average  speed  is  about  twenty  miles  an  hour 
from  Moscow  to  Lake  Baikal,  and  slower 
from  there  to  Stretensk.  The  time  required  is 
about  eight  days  from  Moscow  to  Lake  Baikal ; 
three  days  from  Baikal  to  Stretensk;  from 
ten  to  thirty  days,  according  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  water,  from  Stretensk  to  Khaba- 
rovsk by  river;  and  thirty  odd  hours  from 


*  This  was  in  1901,  the  date  of  this  description. 

[38] 


Khabarovsk  to  Vladivostok  by  rail.  Whenthe 
road  around  the  south  end  of  Lake  Baikal  is 
completed,  and  when  the  East-Chinese  Rail- 
way is  open  for  general  travel,*  much  more 
rapid  time  from  Europe  to  the  Pacific  can  be 
made ;  while  with  the  introduction  of  heavier 
rails  and  with  shorter  stops  at  stations  a  much 
faster  rate  of  speed  can  be  maintained. 


*  Shortly  after  this  article  was  written  the  East- 
Chinese  Railway  was  opened  to  the  public  for  travel. 


[39 


CHAPTER   IV 

MOSCOW  TO  IRKUTSK 


MOSCOW  TO  IRKUTSK 

Preparation 

THE  writer  crossed  Siberia  in  the  sum- 
mer and  autumn  of  1901,  shortly  after 
the  railway  as  far  as  Stretensk  had  been 
opened  for  travel,  having  before  leaving  St. 
Petersburg  for  Moscow  secured  much  valu- 
able information  and  assistance  for  the  trip 
through  the  kindness  of  our  American  Am- 
bassador, Mr.  Tower,  and  the  Secretaries  of 
the  Embassy,  Mr.  Pierce  and  Mr.  Morgan. 
He  also  secured  much  valuable  advice  about 
travelling  in  Siberia  from  Mr.  Emery,  an 
American  from  the  state  of  Maine,  who  for 
many  years  had  conducted  trading  posts 
throughout  Siberia  and  who  was  well  and 
favorably  known  from  one  end  to  the  other 
of  that  vast  region.  The  name  "Emery"  over 
a  log  cabin  in  the  wilderness  meant,  as 
the  writer  later  discovered,  that  there  the 
Russians  and  the  native  tribes  could  trade 

[43] 


peacefully  with  furs  or  other  products  of  the 
forest  and  get  in  return  the  products  of  civili- 
zation. The  writer  met  Mr.  Emery  in  Mos- 
cow and  learned  that  he  had  crossed  Siberia 
seventeen  times  before  the  railway  was  built, 
but  that  now  he  was  anxious  to  return  to  his 
native  land.  He  looked  and  talked  like  one 
of  those  hardy  pioneers  in  the  middle  of  the 
last  century  in  our  far-west  states. 

The  Siberian  Train 

The  large  station  at  Moscow  was  a  crowded 
place  when  the  Siberian  train  was  ready  to 
start,  for  even  to  Russians  the  journey  is  a 
long  one,  and  the  friends  of  many  of  the  pas- 
sengers were  there  in  great  numbers  to  see 
them  off.  Finally  the  regulation  three  bells, 
rung  at  intervals  of  several  minutes,  gave  the 
signal  to  start,  and  promptly  on  schedule 
time,  at  9.05  p.  m.,  we  pulled  out  of  the  an- 
cient capital  of  the  empire  for  its  newer  pos- 
sessions in  the  far  east. 

The  train  was  composed  of  first  and  second 

[44] 


class  passenger  cars,  with  a  dining  car, 
library,  bath-room,  barber  shop,  and  appar- 
atus for  gymnastic  exercises.  This  last  feature 
becomes  important  in  so  long  an  overland 
journey  as  across  Siberia,  and  it  might  well 
be  adopted  by  some  of  the  American  trans- 
continental trains.  The  passenger  cars  were 
divided  into  compartments  with  two  or  four 
berths  in  each  and  an  aisle  on  the  side  of  the 
car;  while  the  whole  train  was  lit  by  elec- 
tricity. The  cars  were  attended  by  Tartar 
porters,  who  here,  as  in  most  hotels  and  pub- 
lic places  in  Russia,  are  the  usual  servants. 
They  are  said  to  be  honest,  trustworthy,  and 
fairly  sober.  The  whole  train  was  in  charge  of 
a  Russian  official.  Some  of  the  trains  carry  a 
church  car  in  which  services  are  held  for 
passengers,  as  well  as  for  the  people  at  the 
stations  at  which  the  train  stops  long  enough 
for  this  purpose. 

We  had  a  separate  compartment  in  one  of 
the  cars,  our  neighbors  on  one  side  being  a 
priest  of  the  Greek  Church  and  his  family, 

[45] 


and  on  the  other  side,  the  family  of  a  banker 
in  Siberia.  Several  Russian  officers  were  also 
on  board,  as  well  as  several  civilians  bound 
for  the  gold  districts,  another  bound  for  the 
far  north  on  the  Lena  Valley,  a  Frenchman 
who  had  butter  dairies  in  the  Obi  Valley,  and 
many  others.  Very  few  were  going  all  the 
way  across  Siberia,  most  being  bound  for 
intermediate  points. 

The  train  was  much  crowded,  but  all  were 
good  humored  and  courteous  as  they  filled 
every  available  corner  with  their  many  bags 
and  bundles,  including  large  baskets  of  sup- 
plies, the  inevitable  tea-pots  and  boxes  of 
cigarettes,  and  a  great  deal  of  bedding  with 
mattresses,  sheets,  and  pillows.  This  bedding 
is  not  necessary  on  the  train,  as  it  can  be 
procured  there  by  paying  extra,  and  it  is  stip- 
ulated by  the  railway  authorities  that  they 
will  have  the  sheets  and  pillow-cases  changed 
once  every  three  days  of  the  journey;  but 
it  is  needed  when  the  passenger  leaves  the 
train  and  branches  off  on  the  river  boats  and 

[46] 


u 


postroads.  Bedding  is  also  useful  at  many  of 
the  hotels  of  Siberia,  because  very  often  when 
a  traveller  rents  a  room  he  finds  in  it  a  bare 
iron  or  wooden  bedstead,  as  he  is  expected  to 
carry  his  own  bedding.  At  many  of  the  ho- 
tels, however,  these  articles  can  be  procured 
from  the  proprietor  at  a  fixed  price  for  each 
sheet,  pillow,  pillow-case,  etc.,  so  that  a  bill 
for  one  night's  lodging  and  fare  often  includes 
a  dozen  or  more  items. 

^Across  the  Ural  tJXCountains  and  the 
Steppes 

Our  route  led  us  first  through  the  grain  dis- 
tricts of  eastern  European  Russia,  in  the  val- 
ley of  that  great  water  highway,  the  Volga 
River,  past  the  agricultural  metropolis  of 
Samara,  and  thence  to  the  Ural  Mountains. 
The  Urals  are  a  picturesque,  forest-clad  range 
not  unlike  parts  of  the  Allegheny  Mountains, 
and  they  separate  the  plains  of  eastern  Europe 
from  those  of  western  Asia.  Where  the  divid- 
ing-line is  crossed  in  the  heart  of  the  Urals,  a 

[47] 


large  stone  monument  has  been  erected  bear- 
ing on  one  side  the  inscription  "Europe"  and 
on  the  other  side,  "Asia."  The  most  notice- 
able feature  as  we  descended  the  east  slope 
of  the  mountains  into  the  plains  of  Asia  was 
the  greater  size,  freshness,  and  succulence  of 
the  vegetation,  which  here  shows  a  wonder- 
fully luxuriant  growth,  while  on  the  western 
slope  it  was  dry  and  parched.  This  feature  is 
characteristic  of  the  whole  of  Siberia,  and 
many  of  the  shrubs  and  trees  which  are  com- 
mon to  both  regions  grow  to  much  greater 
size  there  than  in  Europe.  On  both  sides  of 
the  mountains  we  passed  numerous  iron  man- 
ufacturing districts,  for  this  part  of  the  Urals 
is  the  great  iron  region  of  Russia;  and  at 
many  of  the  stations  some  of  the  products  of 
the  works,  such  as  cutlery,  daggers,  and  small 
ornamental  castings,  were  offered  for  sale. 

We  continued  eastward  over  unbroken 
steppes  for  over  1,000  miles  in  the  Govern- 
ments of  Tobolsk  and  Tomsk  and  the  Kirgiz 
country,  across  the  valleys  of  the  Tobol, 

[48] 


Ishim,  Irtish,  and  Obi  Rivers,  whose  courses 
meandering  toward  the  north  are  marked 
by  long  lines  of  trees  intersecting  the  plains. 
As  far  as  the  eye  can  see  are  scattered  fields 
of  grain,  separated  by  grass-lands  brilliant 
with  wild  flowers,  and  dotted  by  droves 
of  cattle  with  their  Kirgiz  herdsmen;  while 
occasionally  caravans  and  emigrant  wagons 
pass  slowly  along  the  country  roads.  Whole 
trainloads  of  butter  from  the  dairies  of  the 
Obi  Valley  are  shipped  in  cold  storage  cars 
to  Europe.  Much  of  it  goes  to  Riga  and  is 
shipped  thence  by  sea  to  England.  Bee  cul- 
ture has  also  reached  a  very  considerable 
stage  of  development  in  the  Tomsk  Govern- 
ment and  throughout  the  regions  to  the  east, 
the  bees  seeming  to  prosper  greatly,  and  im- 
mense quantities  of  honey  are  produced.  Of 
such  importance  has  this  industry  become 
that  the  Russian  Government  has  appointed 
a  special  commissioner  to  look  after  bee  cul- 
ture and  to  study  the  best  methods  of  pro- 
moting it. 

[49] 


The  steppe  regions  contain  numerous  pros- 
perous rural  communities,  and  a  number  of 
towns  of  considerable  size,  with  populations 
of  from  10,000  to  60,000  people.*  Along  the 
line  of  the  railway  Tchelyabinsk,  Kurgan, 
Petropavlovsk,  Omsk,  Tomsk,  and  other 
places,  are  especially  noteworthy.  The  town 
of  Kurgan  is  built  on  what  are  supposed  to 
be  the  ruins  of  an  old  Tartar  fort,  though  the 
native  legend  relates  that  this  spot  was  the 
tomb  of  the  daughter  of  a  powerful  Tartar 
chief,  that  robbers  attacked  it  to  obtain  the 
treasure  buried  with  her,  and  that  the  prin- 
cess in  rage  rose  up  and  drove  off  in  a  chariot 
drawn  by  two  white  horses. 

Tomsk  is  connected  with  the  main  line  by 
a  branch  road,  and  is  the  chief  town  of  the 
government  of  the  same  name,  as  well  as  the 
commercial  centerof  West  Siberia.  Like  many 
other  Siberian  towns,  it  was  started  as  a  fort 


*  These  populations  were  the  estimates  at  the  time 
of  this  narrative  in  1901.  Since  then  many  of  the 
towns  have  greatly  increased  in  population. 

[SO] 


in  the  early  days,  but  gradually  expanded  as 
the  commercial  necessities  of  the  region  re- 
quired, until  now  (year  1901)  it  contains  over 
60,000  people.  It  has  fine  buildings,  telephones, 
telegraph  lines,  electric  lights,  churches,  thea- 
ters, newspapers,  hospitals,  and  all  the  equip- 
ments of  a  modern  city.  It  has  many  schools, 
scientific  societies,  and  one  institution  of 
higher  learning,  the  Tomsk  Imperial  Univer- 
sity, with  a  library  of  over  100,000  volumes. 

^Across  the  Valley  of  the  Yenisei 

To  the  east  of  Tomsk  we  approached  the 
mountain  region  and  travelled  for  about  1,000 
miles  through  a  rugged  country,  occasionally 
intersected  by  higher  mountain  ranges,  with 
many  fertile  valleys,  across  the  Governments 
of  Yenisei  and  Irkutsk  to  Lake  Baikal.  This 
country  is  abundantly  watered  by  many 
streams,  the  most  important  being  the  Yen- 
isei and  its  tributary,  the  Angara,  and  in 
many  parts  it  is  heavily  covered  with  for- 
ests.  Hunting  is  a  popular  occupation  here 

[51] 


among  both  Russians  and  natives,  but  it  has 
been  carried  on  so  actively  during  the  three 
hundred  years  or  more  in  which  Siberia  has 
been  known  to  the  Russians,  that  some  of  the 
animals,  especially  the  sable,  which  is  the 
most  sought  after  of  all  the  fur  animals,  have 
been  almost  exterminated.  Laws  have  been 
recently  made,  however,  restricting  hunting 
to  certain  times  of  year,  and  also  defining  the 
methods  under  which  it  shall  be  carried  on, 
thus  giving  the  game  a  chance  to  escape  com- 
plete extermination. 

The  mining  resources  of  this  mountainous 
region  are  rapidly  becoming  prominent,  es- 
pecially the  gold  mining,  which  is  a  newer 
industry  here  than  in  the  Urals.  The  gold  oc- 
curs both  in  placer  deposits  and  in  veins,  most 
of  the  production,  however,  coming  from  the 
placers,  as  vein  mining  has  been  but  little 
developed;  but  even  in  placer  mining  only 
the  richest  alluvium  is  worked.  The  Ural 
Mountains  and  the  Yakutsk  and  Amur  Terri- 
tories are  the  chief  gold-producing  regions  of 
[52] 


Asiatic  Russia,  though  the  Governments  of 
Tomsk,  Yenisei,  and  Irkutsk,  and  the  Terri- 
tory of  Transbaikalia,  produce  considerable, 
while  the  Territory  of  Ussuri  and  the  region 
of  the  Okhotsk  Sea  and  Kamchatka  produce 
a  little.  The  total  production  of  all  Russia  in 
1900,  including  Siberia  and  the  Urals,  was  a 
little  over  #20,000,000.  Taking  Siberia  and 
the  rest  of  Asiatic  Russia  as  a  whole,  its  pos- 
sibilities as  a  gold-producing  region  are  simply 
enormous.  It  is  bounded  on  the  south,  west, 
and  east  by  gold-bearing  mountains,  and  an 
extraordinary  number  of  the  streams  from 
these  ranges  show  signs  of  gold  in  their  allu- 
vium, while  many  of  them  are  wonderfully 
rich. 

It  would  seem  that  at  no  very  distant 
time  the  gold  mines,  if  properly  exploited, 
might  easily  produce,  instead  of  #20,000,000 
annually,  many  times  this  amount;  and  in 
these  great  gold  possibilities  surely  lies  enor- 
mous future  wealth  for  the  Government  and 
the  people  of  Russia. 

[S3] 


Coal  or  lignite  of  various  geological  ages, 
including  Carboniferous,  Jurassic,  and  Ter- 
tiary, is  very  generally  distributed  through- 
out the  eastern  part  of  Siberia,  but  wood  is 
so  cheap  that  coal  has  not  been  much  worked 
except  for  the  railway  and  on  the  coast  for 
ocean  steamers.  The  beds  are  of  considerable 
size,  and  the  quality  is  often  that  of  a  very 
good  bituminous  coal,  while  elsewhere,  espe- 
cially in  the  Tertiary  strata,  it  is  in  the  form 
of  brown  coal  or  lignite.  Iron  ores  also  occur 
in  a  great  many  places  in  the  Ural  Mountains 
and  in  the  mountains  of  the  eastern  part  of 
Siberia.  They  are  extensively  smelted  on  both 
slopes  of  the  Urals,  but  further  east  they  are 
worked  to  only  a  limited  extent  in  the  Gov- 
ernments of  Yenisei  and  Irkutsk  and  the 
Territory  of  Transbaikalia.  The  abundance, 
however,  of  iron  ore  and  fuel  in  Siberia  offers 
the  basis  of  a  great  manufacturing  industry, 
though  up  to  the  present  time  (year  1901) 
the  limited  markets  have  retarded  its  devel- 
opment. 

[54] 


CHAPTER  V 

IRKUTSK  AND   LAKE  BAIKAL 


IRKUTSK  AND  LAKE  BAIKAL 

THE  largest  town  in  the  mountain  region 
of  the  upper  Yenisei  valley  is  Irkutsk, 
in  the  Government  of  the  same  name,  which 
we  reached  after  eight  days'  and  nights'  con- 
tinuous travel  from  Moscow.  It  was  founded 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
as  a  fort  and  trading  post,  at  which  the  trib- 
ute of  furs  paid  the  government  representa- 
tives by  the  native  Buriat  tribes  was  collected. 
It  has  played  an  important  part  in  Siberian 
history,  and  by  the  census  of  1897  it  had 
52,000  people,  though  it  has  grown  consider- 
ably since  then.  Like  Tomsk,  it  has  all  the 
conveniences  of  a  modern  city,  and  the  newer 
and  finer  stone  buildings  are  in  strange  con- 
trast with  the  older  heavy  one-storied  log 
cabins,  surrounded  by  high  fences  of  equally 
heavy  logs,  and  entered  through  mysterious 
looking  small  gates  or  doors,  recalling  the 
days  when  Siberian  houses  were  built  more 

[57] 


for  security  than  for  beauty.  The  activity  of 
the  town  by  day  and  night,  the  saloons,  res- 
taurants, and  hotels  crowded  with  people, 
together  with  the  dance  halls  running  full 
blast,  are  the  result  of  the  sudden  boom 
given  by  the  railway,  which  arrived  there 
in  1898. 

Leaving  the  city  of  Irkutsk,  we  continued 
up  the  Angara  Valley  for  a  few  miles  to  the 
station  of  Baikal  on  Lake  Baikal.  This  lake  is 
the  largest  body  of  fresh  water  on  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe  and  Asia,  and  is  second  only 
to  the  great  lakes  of  America  and  Africa,  be- 
ing about  400  miles  long  and  from  seventeen 
to  fifty-five  miles  wide,  with  a  depth  said 
sometimes  to  reach  between  3,000  and  4,000 
feet.  It  is  fed  by  numerous  streams,  notably 
the  Selenga,  flowing  from  Mongolia,  and  has 
its  outlet  in  the  Angara  River,  a  tributary 
of  the  Yenisei.  It  is  completely  surrounded 
by  rugged  mountains,  and  has  many  rocky 
islands  and  precipitous  capes,  eroded  by 
the  elements  into  fantastic  forms  which  are 

[58] 


believed  by  the  natives  to  be  the  homes  of 
different  deities;  hence  the  lake  is  known  by 
them  as  the  "Holy  Sea."  It  is  noted  for  the 
stormy  weather  usually  prevailing,  and  the 
normal  condition  of  the  waters  during  a  large 
part  of  the  year  seems  to  be  one  of  turbulence. 
In  spite  of  this,  however,  the  lake  is  an  impor- 
tant channel  of  communication,  and  a  num- 
ber of  boats  do  a  lucrative  business  on  it. 
The  railway  maintains  (year  1901)  powerful 
steamers  for  the  transportation  of  passen- 
gers and  freight,  pending  the  time  when  the 
road  shall  be  completed  around  the  south 
shores.  One  of  these  boats,  the  "  Baikal," 
is  a  very  powerful  ice-breaker,  used  in  cross- 
ing the  lake  in  the  winter,  as  the  water  freezes 
to  a  depth  of  from  four  to  seven  feet.  It  is 
also  used  in  the  summer  as  an  ordinary 
transport. 

On  arrivingat  the  lake  we  found  the  steamer 
"Baikal"  waiting  for  the  train.  The  weather 
during  the  morning  had  been  clear  and  per- 
fect, and  we  began  to  think  we  might  have  a 

[59] 


good  passage;  but  before  the  boat  started 
a  heavy  storm  arose,  and  as  we  left  the 
shore  the  waters  of  this  grand  but  inhospit- 
able inland  sea  were  a  mass  of  billows  and 
spray. 

On  the  boat  could  be  seen,  better  than  on 
the  railway,  the  different  races  and  tribes 
that  circulate  along  this  great  interior  high- 
way. Russian  soldiers  and  peasants  from  all 
parts  of  the  empire,  Chinese,  Tartars,  Tun- 
gus,  Ostiaks,  Voguls,  Buriats,  Samoyedes, 
Yakuts,  and  various  other  tribes,  each  in 
its  own  native  dress,  all  talking  in  different 
languages  at  the  same  time,  crowd  and 
jostle  one  another  in  their  rush  to  cross  the 
gang-plank  and  board  the  ship.  Below,  in 
the  cabin,  the  few  first-class  passengers  eat, 
drink,  smoke  cigarettes,  and  play  cards  and 
musical  instruments.  The  steamer  continues 
through  the  fog  and  storm,  the  deck  passen- 
gers become  colder  and  wetter,  the  cabin 
passengers  grumble  at  the  slowness  of  the 
voyage,  and  finally,  after  about  seven  hours, 
[60] 


the  lights  of  the  Mysovaya  mole  and  the 
shrill  whistles  of  the  transport  announce  the 
arrival  in  port.  The  passengers  are  quickly 
transferred  to  the  new  train  and  again  the 
land  journey  is  resumed  toward  the  east. 


[61] 


CHAPTER  VI 

LAKE  BAIKAL  TO  THE  HEAD  OF  THE 
AMUR  RIVER 


LAKE  BAIKAL  TO  THE  HEAD  OF  THE 
AMUR  RIVER 

Transbaikalia 

AFTER  leaving  Lake  Baikal  we  entered 
L  the  Transbaikal  Territory,  also  known 
as  Transbaikalia,  which,  with  the  exception 
of  an  area  of  steppe  land  in  the  southeast,  in 
the  direction  of  the  Desert  of  Gobi,  is  almost 
entirely  a  high  mountainous  country,  well 
watered  by  many  streams;  and  though  the 
climate  is  very  severe,  the  subsoil  over  almost 
the  whole  of  the  Territory  being  frozen  both 
summer  and  winter,  yet  many  valleys  are 
successfully  cultivated  in  places  where  the 
upper  soil  thaws  for  a  depth  of  a  few  inches 
during  the  summer.  The  Amur  Territory  ad- 
joins the  Transbaikal  Territory  on  the  east, 
and  is,  like  it,  essentially  a  mountainous  coun- 
try. It  is  separated  from  the  Chinese  prov- 
ince of  Manchuria  by  the  Amur  River,  which 
is  the  main  artery  of  travel  through  the  region. 
[65] 


It  was  in  Transbaikalia,  on  the  Onon  River, 
that,  according  to  the  Mongol  legend,  their 
great  chief  of  the  thirteenth  century,  Jenghiz 
Khan,  was  born.  In  fact,  the  original  home 
of  the  Turko-Mongolian  tribes,  which  over- 
ran Asia  and  eastern  Europe  in  the  middle 
ages,  is  supposed  to  have  been  in  southern 
Transbaikalia  and  the  adjoining  parts  of 
China.  The  Turks,  of  what  is  now  the  Turk- 
ish Empire,  probably  came  originally  from 
here,  but  they  have  become  so  much  mixed 
with  Caucasians  since  they  settled  in  Europe 
and  western  Asia  that  they  are  a  very  dif- 
ferent people  from  the  original  Turkish  stock 
which  is  seen  in  its  less  adulterated  condition 
in  some  of  the  Siberian  tribes. 

It  may  be  stated  here  that  the  natives  of 
Siberia  are  mostly  scattered  nomadic  tribes, 
differing  considerably  in  different  parts,  but, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  tribes  of  uncer- 
tain ethnology,  they  are  probably  largely  of 
Mongolian  origin;  and  many  of  them,  at 
least,  are  descendants  of  once  much  more 
[66] 


numerous  and  powerful  people,  having  been 
driven  by  superior  force,  or  by  the  over- 
crowding of  their  original  homes,  to  seek  new 
lands  to  the  northward  in  the  unoccupied  or 
sparsely  inhabited  regions  of  Siberia.  Among 
the  most  numerous  are  the  Kirgiz  tribes  of 
southwestern  Siberia,  the  descendants  of  the 
Turko-Mongolian  hordes  whose  invasions  in 
the  middle  ages  carried  terror  to  the  people 
of  Europe;  the  Yakuts,  who  wandered  many 
ages  ago  from  their  more  southerly  homes  to 
the  Arctic  regions,  and  have  now  become  so 
thoroughly  acclimatized  that  they  not  only 
exist  there,  but  are  even  among  the  few  native 
tribes  of  Siberia  that  are  increasing  in  num- 
ber; the  Tongus,  a  Mongolian  tribe,  which 
extends  in  greater  or  less  numbers  from  the 
Yenisei  River  to  the  Pacific  Coast.  Among 
other  more  or  less  numerous  tribes  may  be 
mentioned  the  Ostiaks,  Voguls,  Samoyedes, 
Buriats,  Tartars,  Giliaks,  Aleuts,  and  others. 
Transbaikalia  occupies  a  unique  position 
among  the  provinces  of  Siberia,  inasmuch  as 

[67] 


it  has  been  for  ages  the  great  channel  of  entry 
for  Chinese  products  into  Russia  and  for 
Russian  products  into  China.  This  is  partly 
because  it  is  the  shortest  route  to  Europe 
from  eastern  China,  and  partly  because  the 
Selenga  valley  offers  a  much  easier  passage 
across  the  frontier  than  any  of  the  routes  to 
the  west,  where  the  rugged  mountains  make 
the  few  passes  that  do  exist  more  or  less  diffi- 
cult. From  the  earliest  days  a  large  part  of 
the  tea  brought  to  Russia  from  China  has 
come  over  this  route.  The  town  of  Kiakhta, 
in  the  Selenga  valley,  near  the  frontier,  was 
and  is  still  the  great  international  market 
where  the  Slav  and  Mongol  meet  and  trade. 
A  novel  industry  in  Transbaikalia  is  the 
catching  and  domesticating  the  "maral,"  or 
wild  deer,  for  the  sake  of  its  horns,  which  are 
considered  a  very  valuable  medicine  by  the 
Chinese.  The  maral  sheds  its  horns  once  a 
year,  and  they  are  collected  and  sold  at  high 
prices  to  the  Chinese  merchants,  who  ship 
them  south  to  China.  In  a  similar  manner 
[68] 


the  Siberian  finds  ready  purchasers  among 
the  Chinese  for  the  bones,  claws,  and  other 
parts  of  the  northern  tiger,  which  abounds  in 
Ussuri  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  These  parts, 
when  ground  up  and  administered  to  a  pa- 
tient, are  supposed  to  have  wonderful  effects 
and  the  Chinese  are  said  to  give  this  medicine 
to  their  soldiers  to  keep  up  their  courage. 

Stretensk  and  the  Shilka  and  zAmur 
^Rivers 

We  continued  our  journey  eastward  from 
Lake  Baikal  through  the  mountain  country, 
across  the  Yablonoi  Range,  which,  in  Trans- 
baikalia, forms  the  continental  divide  be- 
tween the  water  of  the  Arctic  and  Pacific, 
past  the  historic  towns  of  Petrovsk,  Tchita, 
and  Nerchinsk,  to  the  terminus  (year  1901) 
of  the  railway  at  Stretensk  on  the  Shilka 
River,  one  of  the  headwaters  of  the  Amur 
River. 

This  town  was  only  a  short  time  ago  a 
quiet  Cossack  village,  a  line  of  log  cabins 

[69] 


strung  along  the  river  bank,  but  the  arrival 
of  the  railway  has  given  it  an  unwonted  ac- 
tivity, for  it  is  here  that  all  the  transconti- 
nental traffic  has  to  be  changed  from  train  to 
boat,  or  vice  versa.  On  our  arrival,  our  first 
effort  was  to  secure  passage  on  a  steamer 
down  the  Shilka  and  Amur  Rivers.  After  ap- 
plying at  several  boats  along  the  shore  and 
finding  that  they  were  all  full,  we  secured  pas- 
sage on  a  freight  boat  named  the  "  Vladimir 
Monamakh.,,  This  was  a  large,  flat-bot- 
tomed, stern-paddle  steamer  loading  with  salt 
and  general  merchandise  for  the  lower  Amur ; 
and  as  even  this  boat  was  very  much  crowded, 
we  were  fortunate  in  securing  the  right  to 
sleep  on  the  seats  in  the  dining  saloon. 

The  loading  of  the  boat  was  all  done  by 
hand,  no  trucks  were  used,  and  everything 
was  carried  on  men's  backs.  Gaily  attired 
music  girls  played  harps  and  violins  along- 
side the  gang-plank  to  encourage  the  men, 
and  this,  together  with  frequent  drinks  of 
vodka,  seemed  to  inspire  them   to   great 

[70] 


activity.  The  more  vodka  they  drank  and  the 
more  music  the  girls  played,  the  harder  the 
men  worked,  until  at  last  the  boat  was  loaded. 
Then  some  cattle  and  sheep  were  driven 
aboard  for  the  settlers  on  the  lower  Amur; 
and  finally,  after  waiting  three  days,  the  boat 
was  ready  and  we  started  down  the  Shilka, 
crowded  with  freight  and  emigrants  and  car- 
rying a  few  cabin  passengers,  and  with  a 
mixed  crew  of  Russians,  Manchurians,  and 
Koreans. 

The  Russian  Government  has  done  much 
to  improve  navigation  on  the  Shilka  and  the 
main  Amur,  as  they  comprise  a  most  impor- 
tant channel  of  travel,  not  only  because  the 
Amur  is  on  the  Manchurian  frontier,  but  be- 
cause it  is  the  gateway  through  the  moun- 
tains to  the  Pacific  provinces.  Lighthouses 
from  point  to  point  indicate  the  course  of  the 
channel,  and  signal  stations  are  established 
at  certain  intervals,  indicating  by  means  of 
graduated  poles,  visible  at  long  distances,  the 
depth  of  the  water  from  day  to  day,  so  that 

[71] 


the  steamboat  captains  have  only  to  glance 
at  these  indicators  as  they  pass  to  learn  the 
condition  of  the  water.  Steam  dredges  are 
also  kept  working  at  shallow  places  in  the 
channel.  In  fact,  the  methods  for  assisting 
navigation  are  remarkably  complete,  and 
rarely  anywhere  can  be  seen  a  more  thor- 
oughly efficient  system  for  river  navigation 
than  this  one  established  by  the  Russian 
Government  in  the  remote  interior  of  Asia. 
The  Shilka  below  Stretensk  flows  through 
a  high  rolling  country  in  the  foothills  of  the 
Yablonoi  Mountains,  until  it  reaches  the 
eastern  limit  of  Transbaikalia,  where  the 
Argun,  flowing  in  a  broad  muddy  stream 
from  northern  China,  joins  it,  and  together 
they  form  the  Amur.  To  the  eastward  the 
Amur  River  divides  the  Amur  Territory  of 
Siberia  from  the  Chinese  Territory  of  Man- 
churia on  the  south. 


[72] 


CHAPTER  VII 

FROM  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  AMUR  TO 
BLAGOVESCHENSK 


FROM  THE  HEAD  OF  THE  AMUR  TO 
BLAGOVESCHENSK 

T^iyer  Settlements 

A  SHORT  distance  below,  where  the 
Shilka  and  Argun  Rivers  combine  to 
form  the  great  Amur  River,  is  the  village  of 
Pokrovsk,  a  small  Cossack  settlement  of  a 
few  hundred  inhabitants,  which  we  reached 
on  the  second  evening  from  Stretensk.  This 
is  one  of  a  number  of  Cossack  villages  which 
represent  posts  established  along  the  left 
bank  of  the  Amur  by  Count  Muravioff,  for 
protection  of  the  frontier,  after  the  treaty  of 
Aigun  with  China  in  1858.  They  are  usually 
built  in  clearances  in  forests  on  the  bank  of 
the  river,  and  consist  of  rows  of  log  cabins, 
above  which  rise  the  spires  of  the  Greek 
churches  which  they  almost  all  possess.  The 
people  live,  in  times  of  peace,  by  farming, 
hunting,  fishing,  and  gold  mining;  while  in 
times  of  war  they  are  soldiers. 

[75] 


We  arrived  at  Pokrovsk  late  in  the  even- 
ing, and  as  at  most  of  the  Cossack  villages, 
as  soon  as  our  boats  touched  shore,  women 
and  children  hurried  to  the  river  bank  selling 
milk,  onions,  and  mushrooms  to  the  passen- 
gers, a  large  flat  mushroom  fried  in  fat  hav- 
ing a  ready  sale.  A  dense  fog  settled  down  on 
the  river  shortly  afterward,  so  that  we  were 
compelled  to  anchor  until  it  cleared  the  next 
morning.  Some  distance  below,  the  river 
flows  through  the  Big  Khingan  Mountains, 
which  extend  from  the  Great  Wall  of  China 
northward  into  Siberia. 

The  country  is  very  wild  and  mountainous, 
densely  covered  with  forests,  and  with  but 
a  few  settlements.  An  occasional  small  vil- 
lage, or  the  isolated  log  house  of  the  guard- 
ian of  a  river  signal  station  or  an  emigrant's 
raft  floating  slowly  down  stream,  are  all  that 
break  the  primeval  grandeur  of  that  region. 
Large  flocks  of  wild  geese  and  ducks,  migrat- 
ing southward  with  the  approach  of  winter, 
flew  up  from  protected  coves  as  our  boat 

[76] 


passed  rapidly  down  the  swift  mountain  cur- 
rent. 

The  next  night,  some  distance  below  the 
Cossack  village  of  Dzhalinda,  we  were  again 
compelled  to  anchor  on  account  of  fog,  and 
did  not  start  until  late  in  the  morning.  The 
evening  was  spent  taking  wood  on  board  for 
fuel,  an  operation  that  had  to  be  performed 
every  day.  The  wood-choppers,  who  have 
camps  along  the  river,  build  fires  during  the 
night  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  steamers 
as  they  pass,  and  the  captains  of  the  boats 
bargain  for  fuel.  On  this  night  the  fog  came 
down  thickly  as  the  sun  sankbehind  the  moun- 
tains, and  the  dense  forests  were  dimly  lit  up  in 
spots  by  the  beacons  of  the  Russian  wood- 
choppers,  whose  heavy  forms  in  their  long 
coats  could  be  dimly  seen  through  the  mist, 
warming  themselves  by  the  fires;  while  the 
tall,  gaunt,  half-naked  forms  of  the  Manchu- 
rians  and  Koreans,  belonging  to  the  boat's 
crew,  moved  up  and  down  the  steep  banks 
carrying  their  burden  of  wood. 

[77] 


^Blagoveschensk 

Passing  down  the  river  we  continued 
through  the  mountains  for  three  days  more, 
occasionally  reaching  open  areas  as  some 
large  tributary  emptied  into  the  Amur.  Each 
night  we  were  stopped  by  dense  fogs,  but 
each  morning  it  cleared  off  into  a  perfect 
day,  cold  and  bright.  After  six  days  we 
finally  reached  Blagoveschensk,  the  capital 
and  commercial  metropolis  of  the  Amur  Ter- 
ritory, with  a  population  (year  1901)  of  about 
33,000  people. 

We  arrived  on  September  10, 1901,  and  the 
next  day  the  first  news  of  the  shooting  of 
President  McKinley,  on  September  6th, 
reached  Blagoveschensk  in  a  short  tele- 
gram to  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  stating 
that  the  President  had  been  shot,  but  that 
the  wound  might  not  be  fatal.  It  was  grati- 
fying for  an  American  to  observe  the  univer- 
sal sympathy  and  regret  shown  by  the  people 
of  this  remote  Siberian  town  over  the  das- 
tardly attack  on  the  President,  and  their 

[78] 


universally  expressed  hope  that  summary 
justice  would  be  dealt  out  to  the  would-be 
assassin. 

It  was  at  Blagoveschensk  in  July,  1900, 
during  the  Boxer  troubles  in  China,  that  the 
Manchu-Chinese  threatened  to  massacre  the 
people  of  Blagoveschensk  and  of  the  small 
Russian  settlements  along  the  river.  It  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  feeling  of  the  isolated 
Russian  communities  in  this  vast  region, 
where,  from  Irkutsk  to  the  Ussuri  River,  a 
distance  of  over  2,000  miles,  there  is  only  one 
town  of  any  considerable  size,  and  that  is 
Blagoveschensk;  while  just  to  the  south,  sep- 
arated from  them  only  by  the  river,  were 
millions  of  Chinese  and  Manchurians  whom 
the  Chinese  Government  had  never  been 
able  to  hold  much  in  check,  waiting  only  for 
a  chance  to  massacre.  Under  such  conditions 
the  civilized  man  must  strike  to  kill  in  pro- 
tection of  his  home  and  family,  and  that  is 
what  the  Russians  did.  Any  other  course 
would  have  meant  ruin  for  them. 

[79] 


The  story  goes  that  the  Chinese  population 
of  Blagoveschensk,  about  5,000  in  number, 
had  planned,  in  connection  with  Chinese  and 
Manchurians  from  over  the  Amur,  to  mas- 
sacre the  people  of  the  town  on  a  certain  day; 
but  the  Russians  anticipated  their  plans  and 
attacked  them,  killing  many  and  driving  the 
others  into  the  river,  where  most  of  them 
were  drowned.  The  Chinese  from  the  Man- 
churian  side  of  the  river  bombarded  the  town, 
but  did  little  damage,  and  were  finally  driven 
away.  A  story  is  told  of  two  Russian  soldiers, 
each  wounded  in  one  arm,  and  being  unable 
to  handle  their  guns  alone,  they  stood  to- 
gether, one  holding  his  gun  with  his  unin- 
jured arm,  and  the  other  pulling  the  trigger 
with  the  one  hand  that  remained  to  him.  The 
fight,  once  started,  was  continued  until  the 
Chinese  were  driven  far  into  the  interior  of 
Manchuria  and  their  river  settlements  aban- 
doned and  burned.  Notable  among  these  was 
the  town  of  Aigun,  twenty-three  miles  below 
Blagoveschensk,  on  the  Chinese  side  of  the 

r  8oi 


u 


1    8 


o 


river,  an  old  and  prosperous  river  port, 
made  familiar  by  the  Russo-Chinese  treaty 
of  1858  and  one  of  the  most  populous  settle- 
ments of  this  part  of  Manchuria.  Not  a 
house  is  left  standing,  nothing  remains  ex- 
cept innumerable  brick  chimneys  rising  up 
from  the  ashes  of  the  town,  like  blackened 
tombstones  in  a  graveyard.  Near  by,  on 
the  river  front,  a  small  camp  over  which 
the  Russian  flag  floats  (year  1901)  indi- 
cates the  dwelling  of  the  guard  left  by  the 
victors. 

Russia  had  not  abandoned  Manchuria 
since  she  first  invaded  it  at  this  time,  and 
it  is  well  for  that  beautiful  but  ill-gov- 
erned country,  for  the  Russians  are  rapidly 
restoring  law  and  order  where  formerly 
there  were  riot  and  anarchy,  and  where 
the  country  was  overrun  by  brigands. 
Moreover,  the  East-Chinese  Railway,  which 
was  being  constructed  through  Manchuria 
under  Russian  direction,  and  in  accordance 
with  a  definite  agreement  with  China,  did 

[81] 


not  receive  protection  from  the  Chinese 
Government  in  the  troubles  of  1900,  so 
that  the  Russians  were  forced  to  guard 
their  own  property. 


[82] 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FROM  BLAGOVESCHENSK  TO 
VLADIVOSTOK 


FROM  BLAGOVESCHENSK  TO 
VLADIVOSTOK 

The  J^ower  zAmur 

WE  LEFT  the  "Vladimir  Monamakh" 
at  Blagoveschensk,  and  after  a  short 
stay  there  secured  passage  on  the  mail  steamer 
"John  Cockerill,"  a  fine  river  boat  bound  for 
Nikolaievsk,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Amur. 
We  had  intended  to  stay  longer  in  this  region 
but  winter  was  coming  on  and  we  had  to 
reach  the  Pacific  Coast  before  the  river  froze. 
The  "John  Cockeriir  was  crowded  with 
freight  and  passengers,  including  many  emi- 
grants. The  cabin  passengers  were  more 
numerous  than  on  the  "Monamakh,"  and 
included  many  Russian  officers  going  to  dif- 
ferent stations  in  the  eastern  part  of  Siberia. 
On  leaving  Blagoveschensk  the  river  wid- 
ens out  into  a  magnificent  stream  of  from  one 
to  three  miles  in  width,  bounded  on  both 
sides  by  broad  plains,  though  the  mountains 
[85] 


again  closed  in  as  we  approached  the  Little 
Khingan  Range,  and  still  further  down  the 
Vanda  and  the  Kendeh-a-lin  Ranges.  Three 
days  after  leaving  Blagoveschensk  we  reached 
Khabarovsk,  a  town  of  about  15,000  people, 
beautifully  situated  on  the  high  bluffs  of  the 
Amur,  just  below  its  confluence  with  the  Us- 
suri  River.  It  is  named  after  the  famous 
Cossack  leader  Khabaroff,  who  invaded  the 
Amur  region  about  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  and  contains  a  fine  monu- 
ment to  Count  Muravioff,  who  finally  ac- 
quired this  region  for  Russia  two  centuries 
later.  Here  we  heard  the  news  that  an  opera- 
tion had  been  performed  on  President  McKin- 
ley  and  that  he  was  expected  to  recover,  a 
hope  in  which  we  greatly  rejoiced,  but  in 
which  we  were  to  be  sadly  disappointed  on 
our  arrival  at  Vladivostok  a  few  days  later. 
We  left  the  mail  boat  at  Khabarovsk  and 
took  the  Ussuri  branch  of  the  railway  to 
Vladivostok,  a  distance  of  over  400  miles 
south  through  Ussuri  province.  The  country 
[86] 


became  more  and  more  cultivated  as  we  pro- 
ceeded south,  and  showed  the  ameliorating 
effects  of  the  proximity  to  the  Pacific  in  a 
climate  much  milder  than  that  we  had  found 
in  the  Amur  Valley.  Many  small  settlements 
and  villages  were  passed  on  the  way,  but 
none  of  them  was  of  any  considerable  size 
except  Nikolsk,  with  about  15,000  people, 
which  is  the  point  of  junction  with  the  East- 
Chinese  Railway  and  is  an  important  mili- 
tary station. 

^Vladivostok 

On  our  arrival  at  Vladivostok  we  were 
heartily  welcomed  by  our  efficient  American 
Commercial  Agent,  Mr.  Greener,  who  is 
(year  1901)  the  only  official  representative  of 
the  United  States  Government  in  all  Siberia. 
A  large  American  flag  floating  from  the  top 
of  his  house  on  a  prominent  hill  in  the  city 
was  a  most  grateful  sight  to  one  who  had  not 
seen  this  emblem  for  a  long  time;  but  a  sec- 
ond glance  showed  it  to  be  at  half-mast,  and 
[87] 


with  a  shock  we  recognized  this  first  sad 
intimation  we  had  received  of  the  death  of 
President  McKinley,  three  days  before.  The 
Russian  naval  fleet  then  in  the  harbor  showed 
its  sympathy  with  the  loss  of  our  nation  by 
firing  salutes  and  making  other  naval  demon- 
strations; and  universal  regret  and  indigna- 
tion over  the  assassination  were  heard  on  all 
sides. 

Vladivostok  is  the  great  Pacific  Coast  port 
of  Siberia,  and  is  situated  on  a  narrow  strip 
of  hilly  land  extending  into  Peter  the  Great 
Bay  at  the  head  of  the  Japan  Sea.  The  harbor 
of  Vladivostok  is  known  as  the  Golden  Horn, 
and  is  one  of  the  best  on  the  coast  of  Asia. 
Its  depth  is  great  enough  for  any  ships  navi- 
gating the  Pacific  Ocean,  while  its  mouth  is 
narrow  and  protected  from  the  sea  by  pro- 
truding tongues  of  land  and  islands.  The 
town  is  in  latitude  43 °  6'  N.,  which  is  only  a 
very  little  north  of  the  latitude  of  New  York ; 
yet  the  climate,  owing  to  the  cold  Arctic  in- 
fluences along  the  Siberian  coast,  is  as  severe 
[88] 


as  in  many  places  much  further  north  in 
America.  The  harbor  is  frozen  usually  from 
the  middle  of  December  until  early  in  April, 
but  the  channel  is  successfully  kept  open  by 
ice-breakers,  and  commerce  is  not  inter- 
rupted at  any  time  of  the  year. 

Vladivostok  was  founded  by  the  Russians 
as  a  military  post  in  i860.  At  that  time  it  was 
of  little  commercial  importance,  but  it  grew 
rapidly,  and  in  about  ten  years  it  had  re- 
placed Nikolaievsk  as  the  principal  port  of 
the  Siberian  coast.  In  1891  the  Ussuri  Rail- 
way was  started  as  the  first  division  of  the 
Siberian  Railway,  and  by  its  completion  to 
Khabarovsk  in  1897,  as  well  as  by  the  com- 
pletion of  lines  west  of  Stretensk,  somewhat 
later,  Vladivostok  was  connected  directly 
with  Europe  by  railway  and  river  routes. 
The  town  now  has  a  population  of  some 
60,000,  about  half  being  Russians,  with  a  few 
other  Europeans  and  a  few  Americans,  and 
the  rest  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  Koreans.  It 
is  one  of  the  most  substantially  built  towns 

[89] 


in  Siberia,  most  of  the  houses  being  of  stone 
and  brick,  and  the  government  buildings  and 
banks  being  fine  modern  edifices.  The  docks, 
which  were  formerly  built  of  wood,  are  being 
largely  replaced  by  massive  stone  structures 
that  make  the  town  look  as  if  it  was  there 
to  stay.  It  contains  a  number  of  schools, 
churches,  charitable  and  scientific  societies, 
several  periodicals,  hotels,  and  a  theater  hall. 
The  Eastern  Institute,  situated  here,  is  a 
school  where  students  are  taught  the  Chi- 
nese, Manchurian,  Japanese,  Mongolian, 
Korean,  and  other  Asiatic  languages,  to  pre- 
pare them  for  government  service  at  Asiatic 
stations. 

In  the  streets  everything  is  active  and 
noisy;  carriages  dash  up  and  down,  with  the 
horses  galloping  in  a  way  that  delights  the 
heart  of  the  Russian  cab  driver;  heavy  trucks 
loaded  with  merchandise  move  slowly  back 
and  forth  from  the  docks ;  occasionally  a  com- 
pany of  Russian  troops  passes  through  the 
main  streets— strong,  healthy,  powerfully 
[90] 


built  men  who  look  well  capable  of  filling 
their  task  of  guarding  northern  Asia.  In  the 
marketplace,  on  the  shore  of  the  Golden 
Horn,  Chinese  and  Korean  junks  unload  and 
offer  their  goods  for  sale,  while  further  along 
the  bay  the  large  sea-going  steamers  are 
loading  and  unloading,  and  the  Korean  dock 
laborers,  in  their  white  clothes,  together  with 
the  Chinese,  seem  to  work  harder  than  any- 
one in  town.  Back  from  the  bay,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  town,  is  the  camp  of  the 
garrison  of  Vladivostok,  and  near  by  is  an 
exile  settlement  made  up  of  neat  log  cabins 
with  gardens,  and  beautifully  situated  on  the 
side  of  a  hill.  The  exiles  here  are  those  that 
have  finished  their  terms  of  hard  labor.  They 
look  clean  and  well  kept,  and  have  a  great 
deal  of  freedom.  Further  down  the  hill,  on 
the  shore  of  the  bay,  is  a  brewery  surrounded 
by  an  attractive  grove  of  trees,  where  on  hot 
days  Russians  go  to  drink  beer. 


[91] 


CHAPTER   IX 

RUSSIAN  CIVILIZATION  IN  SIBERIA 


RUSSIAN  CIVILIZATION  IN  SIBERIA 

Rapidity  of  its  Spread 

THE  rapidity  with  which  the  Russians 
explored  and  subjugated  Siberia  has  al- 
ready been  described,  and  it  was  ail  the  more 
remarkable  when  we  consider  that,  while  this 
was  going  on,  they  were  at  different  times  in- 
volved in  wars  with  the  Swedes,  Germans, 
Poles,  Turks,  and  Mongols.  Nevertheless, 
they  found  time  and  means  not  only  to  de- 
fend themselves  successfully  from  their  ene- 
mies in  Europe  and  southern  Asia,  but  also 
to  conquer  northern  Asia.  In  this  they  were 
much  assisted  by  the  great  river  systems  of 
Siberia,  which  offered  a  ready  means  for 
travel  in  different  directions,  and  by  the  fact 
that  the  scattered  native  tribes  offered  but  a 
feeble  resistance  to  the  advance  of  the  or- 
ganized forces  of  the  Russians,  so  that,  with 
the  exception  of  the  campaigns  of  Yermak  in 
West  Siberia  and  of  Khabaroff  on  the  Amur, 

[95] 


and  a  few  other  important  conflicts  by  other 
commanders,  the  invasion  and  occupation  of 
Siberia  were  accomplished  with  but  little 
bloodshed. 

The  fur  hunters,  moreover,  were  a  potent 
factor  in  Russia's  rapid  advance  into  Siberia. 
They  penetrated  the  most  remote  regions, 
often  making  journeys,  lasting  several  years, 
in  search  of  the  sable  and  other  fur  animals, 
and  incidentally  brought  back  information 
about  unknown  sections,  which  was  of  the 
greatest  use  in  later  conquests.  They  were 
the  first  explorers  in  new  regions  in  Siberia, 
just  as  in  America  the  seekers  for  gold  and 
silver,  as  well  as  the  fur  hunters,  from  the 
time  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro  to  recent  times  in 
our  western  states,  and  even  to  the  present 
time  in  Alaska,  have  been  the  pioneers  in  un- 
explored regions.  The  Russians,  however,  did 
not  take  notice  of  mines  in  early  days.  They 
were  fur  hunters  and  not  miners,  and  the 
gold-mining  industry  became  important  only 
at  a  later  date. 

[96] 


Though  the  fur  hunters  played  an  impor- 
tant part  in  the  early  exploration  of  Siberia, 
they  did  but  little  toward  the  permanent 
colonization  of  the  region.  This  fell  to  the  lot 
of  the  Cossacks,  the  exiles,  and  the  free  set- 
tlers, and  these  three  classes  of  colonists  rep- 
resent the  mass  of  the  Russian  population  of 
Siberia  to-day  (year  1901). 

The  Cossacks 

The  Cossacks  were  the  people  who  stood 
the  brunt  of  the  hard  work  of  early  coloniza- 
tion, and  it  was  due  to  their  wonderful  en- 
durance and  spirit  that  the  country  was  suc- 
cessfully settled.  In  order  to  understand  the 
results  accomplished  by  these  remarkable 
people  it  is  necessary  to  say  a  few  words 
about  their  origin  and  development.  They 
are  supposed  to  have  been  originally  ref- 
ugees from  different  tribes,  who  collected, 
in  the  turbulent  times  following  the  period 
of  Mongol  oppression,  on  the  southern  fron- 
tier of  European  Russia.  At  first  they  were 

[97] 


distinguished  as  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don 
and  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  as  they  in- 
habited parts  of  the  valleys  of  those  rivers. 
They  lived  on  the  islands  of  the  rivers  or 
in  the  surrounding  marshes,  and  had  strong- 
ly fortified  positions  for  their  protection. 
They  were  essentially  independent  demo- 
cratic communities,  ever  jealous  of  their 
liberty  and  freedom  of  action.  They  held 
their  property  in  common  among  themselves 
and  elected  their  own  "Hetmans,"  or  lead- 
ers. They  were  a  fierce,  warlike,  restless 
people;  and  their  neighbors,  the  Russians, 
Poles,  and  Turks,  were  constantly  seeking 
their  assistance  in  their  wars  with  one 
another.  The  Cossacks  served  with  all  of 
them  at  different  times,  but  gradually  be- 
came more  and  more  identified  with  Russia, 
until  finally  they  declared  allegiance  to 
that  country,  and  became  completely  "Rus- 
sified." 

The  Cossacks  of  the  Don  were  from  very 
early  times   more  or  less  under   Russian 

[98] 


control,  but  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper  pre- 
served greater  freedom  until,  by  the  treaty 
of  Radzine  in  1681,  they  put  themselves  un- 
der Russian  protection.  They  both,  however, 
retained  more  or  less  of  their  old  organiza- 
tion, and  were  allowed  much  more  freedom 
than  other  tribes  of  the  empire;  but  their 
restless  spirit  led  them  to  frequent  disturb- 
ances and  revolts  against  imperial  authority, 
and  the  general  government  was  obliged  to 
restrict  their  privileges  more  and  more,  and 
often  to  deport  them  to  different  parts  of  the 
empire.  Even  now,  however,  they  possess 
special  privileges  which  distinguish  them 
from  other  Russians. 

In  the  various  vicissitudes  through  which 
the  Cossacks  have  gone  they  have  become, 
both  by  voluntary  migration  and  enforced 
deportation,  greatly  scattered,  so  that  now, 
instead  of  simply  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don 
and  of  the  Dnieper,  as  of  old,  we  find  the 
Cossacks  of  the  Danube,  of  the  Black  Sea,  of 
the  Azoff,  of  the  Caucasius,  of  Orenburg,  of 
[99] 


the  Ural,  of  Astrakhan,  of  the  Kirgiz  Steppe, 
of  Transbaikalia,  of  the  Amur,  of  the  Ussuri, 
and  elsewhere.  They  are  true  frontiersmen, 
and  though  they  have  at  times  given  the 
Russian  Government  much  trouble,  they 
have  also  been  of  great  service  as  explorers, 
settlers,  and  soldiers.  Without  them  the  set- 
tlement of  Siberia  would  probably  have  been 
a  much  slower  and  more  difficult  task. 

The  Cossacks  were  almost  invariably  the 
first  people  sent  to  occupy  newly  acquired 
parts  of  Siberia,  and  at  the  present  time  they 
are  found  from  one  end  to  the  other  of  Asi- 
atic Russia.  Though  many  of  them  have  been 
sent  there  as  settlers  and  for  the  protection 
of  frontiers,  yet  many  have  gone  voluntarily, 
and  they  all  are  loyal  Russians,  ever  ready 
and  desirous  of  fighting  for  their  country.  In 
consideration  of  the  special  privileges  they 
enjoy  (year  1901)  they  are  supposed  to  be  at 
the  command  of  the  Government  whenever 
they  are  needed,  and  they  are  generally  used 
for  cavalry  and  artillery,  though  sometimes 
[  100] 


as  infantry.  They  are  usually  stationed  at 
points  on  the  frontier  or  other  exposed  places 
where  their  services  might  be  required.  They 
are  settled  in  isolated  communities,  and  in 
times  of  peace  they  practise  agriculture  or 
the  cruder  arts,  while  in  times  of  war  they 
are  soldiers. 

Exiles 

The  banishment  of  exiles  to  Siberia  began 
in  the  year  1593,  shortly  after  Yermak's  con- 
quests, and  since  then  it  has  continued,  the 
number  varying  greatly  from  time  to  time, 
from  a  fewthousand  to  20,000 yearly,  accord- 
ing to  circumstances  and  the  various  vicissi- 
tudes through  which  the  empire  has  passed. 
At  first  banishment  to  Siberia  was  confined 
almost  entirely  to  people  of  rank,  mostly 
political  and  religious  offenders,  who  were 
exiled  instead  of  being  put  to  death,  but  later 
all  kinds  of  criminals  were  sent  there,  and  the 
region  became  the  penal  colony  of  Russia. 
Capital  punishment,  except  in  special  cases, 
[IOI] 


was,  nominally  at  least,  abolished  in  Russia 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  so 
that  many  exiles  were  sent  to  Siberia  instead 
of  being  executed. 

The  free  emigration  to  Siberia  has  increased 
so  rapidly  in  the  last  few  years  that  the  col- 
onists of  this  class  now  far  outnumber  the 
exiles;  and  the  latter  are  said  to  amount  to 
less  than  six  per  cent,  of  the  total  population 
(year  1901).  Many  of  the  exiles  are  educated 
people,  whose  influence  has  proved  valuable 
in  the  new  communities,  yet  many  of  them 
are  common  criminals,  and  as  the  voluntary 
settlers  increased  in  number,  their  enforced 
association  with  the  criminal  convicts  nat- 
urally resulted  in  a  demoralizing  influence. 
These  convicts  were  mostly  people  who  were 
not  of  a  class  that  made  good  pioneers  in  a 
new  country,  and  they  preferred  to  live  by 
their  old  lawless  methods  rather  than  to  at- 
tempt to  earn  a  livelihood  by  legitimate 
means.  This  condition  of  affairs  for  many 
years  resulted  in  numerous  protests  on  the 
[  102  ] 


part  of  the  settlers,  with  the  result  that 
finally  an  edict  was  promulgated  by  which 
most  offenses  were  to  be  punished  by  im- 
prisonment, and  the  exile  system  of  Siberia 
was  to  be  largely  restricted  except  for  certain 
classes  of  common  criminals,  who  were  to  be 
sent  mostly  to  the  distant  island  of  Sakhalin, 
on  the  Pacific  Coast. 

It  is  not  the  intention  of  the  writer  to  enter 
into  the  discussion  of  the  Russian  exile  sys- 
tem, but  in  justice  to  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment (year  1901)  it  should  be  stated  that  the 
latter  has  often  been  unjustly  and  too  harshly 
criticized  for  this  system.  Many  of  the  people 
sent  to  Siberia  would  have  been  put  to  death 
in  other  countries,  and  whatever  disadvan- 
tages may  have  accompanied  the  exile  sys- 
tem, the  intention  of  the  Government  was 
humane  and  charitable.  This  is  shown  by  the 
very  fact  that,  at  a  time  when  in  other  coun- 
tries of  Europe  the  death  penalty  was  being 
dealt  out  with  an  unsparing  hand,  the  Slav 
was  quietly  trying  to  abolish  it  as  cruel,  and 
[  103  ] 


was  sending  its  criminals  to  a  distant  but 
habitable  land  in  hope  of  reforming  and  mak- 
ing good  settlers  of  them.  The  Russian  Gov- 
ernment has  not  intentionally  abused  its  ex- 
iles. Of  course,  in  such  a  vast  country  as 
Siberia,  petty  officials  in  remote  districts,  be- 
yond the  reach  of  ready  supervision,  may 
often  have  overstepped  their  authority,  but 
when  they  have  been  found  doing  so,  they 
have  been  punished.  The  Government  did 
not  want  the  exiles  ill  treated,  not  only  for 
reasons  of  humanity,  but  because  it  needed 
them  as  settlers  in  a  new  country,  and  to 
have  ill  treated  them  would  have  thwarted 
this  object. 

Free  Settlers  in  Siberia 

Shortly  after  the  first  exiles  were  sent  to 
Siberia  attempts  were  made  to  start  colonies 
of  free  settlers  from  European  Russia.  This 
was  difficult  at  first,  as  European  Russia  was 
not  sufficiently  crowded  to  make  people  seek 
more  space  in  a  new  country,  and  there  was 
[  104] 


no  great  inducement  to  go  to  Siberia,  such  as 
there  was  in  America  to  go  west  when  gold 
and  silver  were  discovered  there.  In  order  to 
hasten  colonization,  therefore,  communities 
of  peasants  in  European  Russia  were  deported 
and  sent  to  Siberia,  but  the  result  of  this 
method,  though  it  did  something  toward  es- 
tablishing Russian  civilization  in  northern 
Asia,  was  not  altogether  satisfactory.  The 
veryfact  that  a  settler  had  been  deported  to  a 
new  country  indicated  that  he  preferred  to 
stay  at  home,  and  therefore  he  was  not  so  effi- 
cient a  colonist  as  the  voluntary  emigrant, 
who  went  there  under  the  influence  of  an  en- 
thusiasm for  new  conditions  which  made  his 
work  felt.  Hence  the  enforced  settlers  have 
not  been  a  large  element  in  the  development 
of  Siberia,  and  the  system  of  such  deportation 
has  not  been  much  practised  since  the  early 
days,  except  with  the  Cossacks. 

In  later  years,  however,  as  Siberia  became 
better  known  and  as  European  Russia  de- 
veloped  its  wonderfully  rapid  increase   in 


population,voluntary  emigration  has  become 
more  general.  In  the  beginning  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  there  were  only  about  150,000 
settlers  in  Siberia,  and  in  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  they  had  increased 
only  to  about  500,000;  but  the  number  grew 
rapidly  in  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  so  that  shortly  before  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Great  Siberian  Railway  was  com- 
menced, there  were  probably  over  3,000,000 
people  in  Siberia,  which  number  has  in- 
creased (year  1901)  to  probably  very  close  to 
6,000,000.  The  emigration  is  now  going  on 
faster  than  ever;  all  the  trains  and  boats  are 
crowded,  and  along  the  rivers  many  emi- 
grants are  seen  on  rafts  floating  down  to  their 
new  homes,  with  their  families,  cattle,  horses, 
hogs,  and  household  possessions. 

The  railway,  of  course,  has  been  the  great 
stimulus  to  immigration  in  recent  years,  and 
before  long  Siberia  will  doubtless  have  a  very 
much  larger  population  than  at  present.  It 
has  frequently  been  the  experience  with  our 
[106] 


western  railways  in  America  that  wherever 
they  were  built,  no  matter  how  barren  or  un- 
prepossessing the  country  might  seem,  yet 
people  began  to  travel  on  them,  and  before 
long  settlements  grew  up  and  the  region  as- 
sumed a  prosperity  that  was  totally  unex- 
pected. So  it  will  doubtless  be  with  Siberia. 
The  old  impression  that  the  region  was  a 
bleak,  frozen  desert  was  a  great  drawback  to 
its  colonization ;  but  now  it  is  known  to  be  a 
rich  country,  full  of  resources  for  the  farmer, 
miner,  and  manufacturer,  and  with  a  climate 
which,  though  severe,  is  in  many  places  re- 
markably healthy.  In  our  own  country  of 
America  parts  of  our  western  prairie  states  a 
generation  ago  were  marked  as  "deserts"  on 
our  maps,  but  now  they  are  among  the  rich- 
est agricultural  regions ;  and  no  one  who  trav- 
els through  Siberia  and  sees  the  rich  steppes 
covered  with  luxuriant  grass,  the  mountains 
with  their  fertile  valleys,  the  rivers  abound- 
ing in  fish,  and  the  great  forests,  can  doubt 
that  the  same  mistake  was  made  in  adjudging 

[  107] 


Siberia  a  desert  as  was  made  when  that 
verdict  was  passed  on  our  domains.  Of 
course,  in  the  far  north  Siberia  is  a  cold, 
bleak  region,  unfit  for  Russian  colonization ; 
but  in  the  southern  and  eastern  parts  it  is 
in  no  way  inferior  to  some  of  our  northern 
states  or  to  the  provinces  of  Canada  along 
the  American  boundary. 

Some  Industries  of  Siberia 

The  principal  industries  of  Siberia  are  agri- 
culture, cattle  raising,  gold  mining,  fishing, 
hunting,  and  lumbering.  Until  now  trade 
has  consisted  largely  of  the  exchange  of  raw 
materials  for  the  manufactured  products  of 
Europe.  There  are  but  few  manufacturing 
industries,  and  those  that  do  exist  are  mostly 
on  a  small  scale,  supplying  a  purely  local  de- 
mand. With  the  vast  quantities  of  raw  ma- 
terial, however,  that  are  capable  of  being 
manufactured  on  the  spot,  with  the  abundant 
coal  fields,  iron  ores,  and  products  of  the 
farm,  there  is  every  opportunity  for  Siberia, 
[108] 


with  cheap  railway  transportation,  to  be- 
come an  important  manufacturing  country. 
The  fisheries  of  Siberia  are  a  most  important 
industry,  as  they  supply  food  not  only  for 
man,  but  for  the  dogs  he  uses  in  the  north  for 
beasts  of  burden.  All  the  great  rivers  abound 
in  fish,  and  on  the  Pacific  Coast  their  num- 
bers are  almost  incredible.  They  are  largely 
varieties  of  salmon,  carp,  sturgeon,  pike,  and 
other  species.  The  keta  is  one  of  the  most 
abundant,  and  is  used  as  food  for  men,  dogs, 
and  hogs ;  while  on  the  coast  the  natives  use 
the  skin  for  clothing,  boots,  and  for  making 
sails  for  their  boats.  In  addition  to  the  fish- 
eries, the  novel  occupation  of  hunting  masto- 
don tusks  for  ivory  gives  employment  to  thou- 
sands of  natives  on  the  Arctic  Coast.  The 
remains  and  even  the  whole  carcasses  of  these 
now  extinct  animals  are  found  in  the  lower 
valleys  of  the  rivers  running  into  the  Arctic, 
where  they  have  been  frozen  for  ages,  and 
many  tons  of  tusks  are  annually  collected  in 
Yakutsk  and  other  northern  provinces. 
[  109  ] 


The  emigrants  to  Siberia  do  not  go  alone 
into  a  new  region,  as  many  American  settlers 
have  done,  but  they  move  in  bodies,  and 
sometimes  a  whole  village  in  European  Rus- 
sia will  move  in  a  mass  to  Siberia.  This  is  due 
to  the  peculiar  organization  of  Russian  vil- 
lages, which  amounts  to  a  commune,  in  which 
the  people  own  and  cultivate  their  lands  in 
common.  Hence  throughout  Siberia  we  find 
numerous  small  agricultural  settlements  sep- 
arated by  almost  totally  uninhabited  areas. 

The  settlers  are  probably  better  treated 
and  better  cared  for  than  any  colonists  that 
ever  entered  a  new  country.  In  the  first 
place,  if  a  certain  community  wishes  to  go  to 
Siberia,  the  Government  allows  them  to  send 
a  representative  to  travel  through  the  coun- 
try and  pick  out  lands  which  he  thinks  are 
desirable.  In  doing  this  he  is  offered  by  the 
Government  every  opportunity  to  make  his 
investigations;  and  when  he  returns  and 
starts  to  Siberia  with  his  people  the  Govern- 
ment grants  a  certain  amount  of  land  for 
[no] 


PS 


each  male  member  of  the  community.  Their 
railway  fare  is  very  low,  and  at  most  of  the 
stations  they  can  get  supplies  at  almost  nom- 
inal prices,  and  sometimes  for  nothing;  at 
points  where  the  emigrants  leave  the  railway 
and  start  off  in  various  directions  by  rivers 
or  wagons,  medical  and  feeding  stations  have 
been  established  where  those  who  are  sick 
can  receive  free  treatment,  and  all  can  be  fed. 
At  some  of  these  stations  there  are  sleeping 
apartments  and  kitchens  for  the  use  of  emi- 
grants. When  they  arrive  at  their  destination 
they  are  often  given  assistance  in  the  way  of 
lumber  and  agricultural  implements,  as  well 
as  other  paternal  attentions ;  while  they  often 
find  Cossacks  in  the  vicinity  to  protect  them 
against  danger. 


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